88 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



cannot travel where these are not. The warblers, 

 which find insects in all the hedges, and the swallows, 

 whose power of wing enables them to sweep large 

 areas for food, may venture northwards in spring, 

 whatever the weather may be, journeying by stages, 

 and feeding as they go. But the fly-catcher is a 

 summer trifler by confirmed habit. He can only 

 feed at leisure and from abundance. On a selected 

 perch he sits, turning his head and slender bill this 

 way and that, watching the crowds of summer flies 

 go by, and every now and then selecting one of a 

 kind that suits his digestion. 



THE FLY-CATCHER'S SKILL. 

 Very upright the fly-catcher sits, and his pendu- 

 lous tail maintains the rhythmic beat almost peculiar 

 to birds which catch insects by sudden dashes, since 

 this motion of the tail and slight agitation of the 

 bird's equilibrium maintain it always in readiness to 

 dart forward at sight of prey. And the swoop of 

 the fly-catcher is usually a very finished perform- 

 ance, commencing with an elegant dive from his 

 perch, with direction and distance so accurately 

 judged that the capture of the fly and the upward 

 curve which carries the bird back to his perch again 

 almost seem part of the original movement. When, 

 however, the fly-catcher chances to miss his aim, he 

 seems almost as flustered and excited as a sparrow 

 chasing a moth. Such hurried dashes and zigzags 

 after the frightened insect ensue not always ending 

 in the success of the bird as to emphasize by con- 

 trast the deadliness of that first dive, which rarely 

 misses, and looks so easy. 



